Calf circumference: cutoff values from the NHANES 1999-2006

Calf circumference (CC) is used in geriatric studies as a simple and practical skeletal muscle (SM) marker for diagnosing low SM and sarcopenia. Currently applied CC cutoff points were developed in samples including older participants; values representative of the full adult lifespan are lacking.

We aimed to develop CC cutoff points and to identify relevant confounding factors from the large and diverse NHANES 1999-2006 population sample.

Demographic, anthropometric, and imaging data (DXA, appendicular lean mass) from the adult (age ≥18 y) NHANES sample were partitioned into subgroups according to sex, age, ethnicity, and race. Adults aged 18-39 y and BMI (in kg/m2) 18.5-24.9 were set as a reference population; CC cutoff points were derived at 1 and 2 SDs below the mean.

The sample included 17,789 participants, 51.3% males and 48.7% females, with respective ages (mean ± SD) of 43.3 ± 16.1 y and 45.5 ± 16.9 y. CC was strongly correlated with appendicular lean mass, r = 0.84 and 0.86 for males and females (both P < 0.001), respectively. Significant differences in mean CC were present across sex, ethnic, self-reported race, and BMI groups. Adjusting CC for adiposity using BMI revealed a decrease in CC beginning after the second decade in males and third decade in females. Rounded CC cutoff values for moderately and severely low CC were 34 cm and 32 cm (males), and 33 cm and 31 cm (females), respectively. Our findings support the use of BMI-adjusted CC values for participants outside the normal-weight BMI range (18-24.9).

This study defined CC values in a diverse population sample along with a BMI-adjustment approach that helps to remove the confounding effects of adiposity and thereby improves CC as a useful clinical estimate of SM mass.